


Hanakotoba

by flecksofpoppy



Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: Community: drabblefix, Falling In Love, Gen, M/M, Quadruple Drabble, UST, Unconsummated
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-06
Updated: 2012-09-06
Packaged: 2017-11-13 15:54:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/505210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flecksofpoppy/pseuds/flecksofpoppy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A flower for every occasion.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hanakotoba

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [drabblefix comm](http://drabblefix.livejournal.com/). Prompt was: _sensory_.

There's a game occasionally played on lazy afternoons ever since Alan told Eric flowers have a language. Eric, although finding the notion to be foolishly sentimental, can't completely dismiss it. Although Eric dislikes complicated things, he respects sincerity, whether or not he understands it.

The first time, he brings a white flower. He wants Alan to translate, to _prove_ that there's really such a language; then he can move on, forget about it, leave behind his silly curiosity.

And there's something in the center of his chest warbling painfully like a bluebird that's fallen from its nest.

\---

_"Waiting,"_ Alan says, after Eric tells him to close his eyes, smell the flower, and tell him what it's saying. He watches Alan's face relax, and then gently brushes the petals under his nose. They accidentally touch his upper lip, and he takes a deep breath, smiling faintly.

"It's a...white camellia?" he guesses.

He's correct. He's correct on both counts, at least according to the very basic explanation that the florist had given to Eric.

And this is how it becomes their game, strange yet entertaining, only shared between them on the slowest of days; and Alan is always correct.

\---

Eric is tense and sitting with an unlit cigarette clutched in one hand, the other trying not to tap his knee in a nervous gesture.

"I'm not going to _reap_ you," Alan says, his voice amused. "Just close your eyes, and smell the flower."

So he does. He shuts his eyes tight, and he feels Alan draw the flower across his lips.

There's a small, surprised gasp, but he doesn't open his eyes. He inhales awkwardly, more interested in smelling _Alan_.

Alan leaves the yellow camellia on the desk and a book, should Eric choose to look up its meaning.

\---

Eric returns the book to Alan a few weeks later, says he wasn't sure what the meaning was, not sure what the flower was saying.

He tells him he underlined the parts he didn't understand, that he's rather sorry he marked up the book.

It's after Alan feels the thorns choking out his heart, that he finds the red camellia pressed between the pages. He presses it to his heart, as if perhaps that might stop the undergrowth from destroying him.

And a garden of Erica flowers is ripped apart, drowned in a rain of sweet pea blossoms and silence.

**Author's Note:**

> [This is an explanation of what Hanakotoba is, in case anyone is interested in the flower meanings.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanakotoba)


End file.
